WASHINGTON, Nov. 13 (UPI) -- President Bush on Tuesday ordered the storage of millions of gallons of crude oil to shore up the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in an effort to protect the nation's energy security.
"The Strategic Petroleum Reserve is an important element of our Nation's energy security. To maximize long-term protection against oil supply disruptions, I am directing today the Secretary of Energy to fill the SPR up to its 700 million barrel capacity," President Bush said in a statement.
The Strategic Petroleum Reserve is the nation's first line of defense against an interruption in petroleum supplies. It is an emergency supply of crude oil stored in huge underground salt caverns along the coastline of the Gulf of Mexico.
President Bush said the reserve would be filled in a "deliberate and cost-effective manner" and through federal royalty payments taking one out of every eight barrels of oil produced by private companies rather than cash payments for supplies owed to the stockpile.
The move follows a recommendation made last month by the U.S. Department of Energy to replenish America's supply of crude oil in the reserve. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham told reporters Tuesday that the Strategic Petroleum Reserve has been depleted in recent years, falling from 580 million barrels to somewhere in the vicinity of 540 million. No timetable has been set by the administration for restoring the reserve to its full capacity, Abraham said.
Abraham dismissed the notion that the president's action was to counter any possible disruption in supply because of the war in Afghanistan. Abraham stressed that the United States needed to ensure its energy security, both through bolstering reserves and passage by the U.S. Senate of the president's energy plan. Administration officials noted that in the days following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries ministers offered to increase production.
"Our current oil inventories, and those of our allies who hold strategic stocks, are sufficient to met any potential near-term disruption in supplies," Bush said in this statement.
The reserve was established in 1975 when President Gerald R. Ford signed legislation making U.S. policy to set aside up to 1 billion barrels of crude oil. The first delivery of Saudi Arabian light crude oil was delivered two years later.
